2019.04.14

Round 1 Race Press Conference

Round 1 Okayama International Circuit : Race Press Conference

No.8 ARTA NSX-GT

 

I was watching the monitor screen throughout the race. It felt like forever [before the race ended]. More than being happy that we won the race, I'm just glad that none of the drivers were badly injured. Watching the y way [Takuya] Izawa-san grabbed the only possible chances to pass the two GT-Rs, I thought that no one else but he could have done that. This is surely a victory that we owe to Izawa-san and the team and to Honda and Bridgestone. It was everyone's victory.

 

Since I was starting from 5th position on the grid, it was a terrible screen of water being kicked up [by the four machines in front], so I could barely see a thing and had no idea where I was running. I somehow managed to pass the two GT-Rs in front of me in the early going, and I think that is what led to this win. The fact that we ended up winning after the post-race decisions was due to the collision between the two other leading Honda NSX-GTs, so personally I have mixed feelings about today's outcome, but I'm going to just accept it as a good start to the season.

 

 

 

 

 

No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3

 

I'm glad that we won, but today was really a tough race. Because I started from 2nd position on the grid, the water screen made it hard to see the condition of the track. But when I was able to get into the lead after [Shinichi] Takagi-san in car No. 55 made a little driving mistake, I could finally see what the track was like. There weren't any real battles going on after that in my vicinity, but after the Safety Car came out and we were running slow, I saw some of the crashed cars and realized how tough it must have been out there for the others.

 

I didn't run in today's race, but I think I made a contribution to the team by helping to get us a spot on the front row of the starting grid in yesterday's qualifying. After [Morio] Nitta-san started the race, I couldn't take my eyes off the monitor screen in the pit. I have never felt time passing as slowly as it did in this race. The moment when Nitta-san passed Takagi-san, I knew that was the only point where he possibly could have done it. I just simply thought, “Amazing!"

 

 

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